The Lovereading4Kids comment

Thiswas only Siobhan Dowd’s second novel but it’s clear her talent as a superb storyteller is beyond question. Sadly, however she died in late 2007 so whatever you do don’t miss her four novels. Her first,A Swift Pure Cry, was shortlisted for nearly all the major awards and although this second novel is very different it has that same page-turner quality about it. It’s a beautifully written mystery set in Manchester and London and featuring two young boys, one of whom disappears on the London Eye shortly before he’s due to emigrate to the US with his mother. This edition features an Introduction from bestselling author Robin Stevens.

Shortlisted for the Nasen and TES 'Special Educational Needs Children's Book Award' 2007.

Synopsis

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

11.32am. Ted and his sister Kat watch their cousin Salim get on board the London Eye. The pod rises from the ground, high above the city. 12.02am. The pod lands and the doors open. Everyone exits - everyone but Salim. Has he spontaneously combusted? (Ted's theory.) Has he been kidnapped? (Aunt Gloria's theory.) Is he even still alive? (The family's unspoken fear.) Even the police are baffled - so it's up to Ted, whose brain runs on its own unique operating system, to solve this mystery and find Salim. Teaming up with Kat, Ted follows a trail of clues across London - while time ticks dangerously by...

Reviews

A thoroughly gripping detective story - Sunday Telegraph

Compulsive reading - Independent

Grips the reader from the opening chapter - Sunday Times

Dowd transforms disability into a gift - The Times

A wonderfully written mystery. It is funny, nerve-wracking and tender by turns, with plenty of pace and excitement as well as some moments for serious reflection - School Librarian

Everything about this book - the perky tone, the subtlety of characterisation and the cleverness of the plotting - is absolutely right - Irish Times

About the Author

'The protagonists in my stories aren’t human rights heroes in the conventional sense. They are ordinary people living in England and Ireland who find extraordinary ways to overcome the difficulties in their lives and for me that’s the essence of any good story: it’s where the ordinary meets the extraordinary.' – Siobhan Dowd

'In 2007 Siobhan Dowd was voted one of the twenty-five British writers for the future (only three were children’s writers). Everybody should read her.' –David Fickling, the author's publisher

Siobhan Dowd was born in London to Irish parents. She spent much of her youth visiting the family cottage in Aglish, County Waterford, and later the family home in Wicklow Town and went on to study Classics at Oxford.

A Swift Pure Cry, Siobhan's first novel, was published by David Fickling Books, in March 2006. In May 2007 it won many children’s book awards including the prestigious Brandford Boase Award. Her second novel, The London Eye Mystery, was published by David Fickling Books on 7 June 2007. Two further novels were published posthumously in 2008 and 2009, Bog Child, appeared in February 2008, and her fourth novel, Solace of the Road, in February 2009. The former won the prestigious Carnegie Medal.

Tragically, Siobhan died at the age of 47, in August 2007; she had been receiving treatment for advanced breast cancer for three years. Her memory lives on in The Siobhan Dowd Trust, set up to help disadvantaged children in the UK and Ireland discover and experience the joy of reading. Although she was ill, Siobhan personally and energetically supervised its foundation; it was one of the very last things on her mind and clearly, for her, the most pressing cause in our society today.

Siobhan was a writing phenomenon: discovering that she was fatally ill, she put pen to paper and produced four of the most remarkable novels for children you could wish for. Her loss to the world of children’s writing is a tragedy. But it is utterly characteristic that Siobhan should, at the end, put her mind unerringly to the most deserving group of all: the young reader. Siobhan realized that our literary culture - critics, bookshops, agents, publishing, libraries, schools - depends ultimately on the reader. And, of readers, the young reader is the most vulnerable. And amongst young readers, the disadvantaged young reader is the most deprived of all. Siobhan, at the last, and with all her usual clarity, decided to help them. And you can help them too.